


There Are Muscles That Move Without Having To Think

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-07 21:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is Gavin,” said Geoff, yawning and then cramming some of Jack’s fries into his still-open mouth.  “He’s my foreign exchange student.  I have to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed during school hours, or else we’ll get a fine or something.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> if all goes according to plan this will be a 5-part series!! the other parts should end up a little bit longer than this one. hope you enjoy ♥‿♥

“Guys,” said Jack, holding up his chemistry textbook for cover. “ _Guys_.”

“You asked for this,” said Ray as Michael loaded up a plastic spoon with disgusting cafeteria-issued peas. “Remember that.”

“I didn’t--” Jack began, but before he could finish, Michael bent the spoon back and let go, neatly catapulting four soggy peas into his face.

“That’s great,” Jack said as one slid down the front of his glasses. “Really, thank you.”

Michael laughed so hard the spoon slipped from his hands, falling to the ground with a clatter just as Geoff approached their table with some new kid in tow.

“Nice,” said Geoff, sitting down next to Jack. The new kid bent over and picked up the spoon, holding it out for Michael to take.

“Got it,” he said with a crooked smile.

“This is Gavin,” said Geoff, yawning and then cramming some of Jack’s fries into his still-open mouth. “He’s my foreign exchange student. I have to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed during school hours, or else we’ll get a fine or something.”

Michael accepted the spoon, bemused, and Gavin sat down next to him in the last available seat. He dimly remembered Geoff complaining about his parents forcing him to sign up for some kind of exchange program a couple months ago, but he hadn’t really been paying attention.

“Hi,” said Gavin. With his bird’s-nest hair and impressively large nose he almost looked like a comic book character, maybe some mad scientist’s gawky assistant. “You’re Ray and Jack and Michael, right? Geoff told me all about you guys on the way back from the vice principal’s office.”

“He already got sent to Chapman?” Ray looked impressed.

Geoff, who could usually be counted on to appreciate that kind of thing, massaged his temples like a stressed-out father.

“He has shop with me and Griffon and he almost chopped off the teacher’s finger.”

“Nah,” said Gavin immediately. “I could’ve taken her whole hand off, easy. It was top.”

Geoff shot Jack a pained look, but he was too busy trying to get flattened peas out of his hair to notice.

"Top?” Michael blurted out. “What the fuck is that?” He’d expected the new kid to just sort of fade into the background once they all got back into the swing of conversation, but he was literally too weird not to question.

Gavin shrugged, taking a bite out of his sandwich. "You know, top. Like, brilliant or whatever."

"Dude," Ray snorted, on the verge of a giggle. "You're so fucking British."

"He’s British as dicks," Geoff agreed.

Gavin shook his head dismissively. “Everyone here talks a load of guff.”

Michael couldn't stop himself from dissolving into laughter at that, only multiplied by the wounded look that Gavin gave him from over the top of his sandwich.

"Guff?" he managed to choke out after a few seconds. "You're an idiot."

“That hurts, Michael,” said Gavin, but he was smiling again. He looked less like a gawky assistant when he smiled.

Somehow, Gavin seemed to fit neatly into the rest of their lunch conversation in spite of his weirdness. When the bell rang, Michael wasn’t even annoyed to discover that they had their next class together.

“You can walk with Michael, right? Just remember to meet me by my car when school’s over. And try not to cut any of his limbs off,” Geoff said to Gavin in parting. Michael half expected to be handed a diaper bag and a list of emergency phone numbers, but Geoff caught sight of Griffon walking by with one of her friends and hurried off to catch up with her.

Ray and Jack said their goodbyes as well, and Michael and Gavin headed off to English. They maintained a comfortable silence for all of ten seconds before Gavin was off again.

"So where did Geoff and his girlfriend get all those tattoos? And where’d you get yours? And is Ray really _that_ good at video games, because Geoff said he is but I don’t think--"

“Geoff and Griffon are both eighteen, I know a guy, and yes,” Michael interrupted.

Gavin continued without missing a beat.

“Do you think bugs enjoy things?”

Michael looked over at him in disbelief.

"What?”

"You know. Do they have fun?"

Before Michael knew it, he’d actually reached out and punched Gavin in the shoulder. Not all that hard, but still. He’d probably never had a shorter turnaround between meeting someone new and physically assaulting them. Somehow, it only made Gavin laugh and stumble out of Michael’s reach, almost banging his elbow on a locker for his troubles.

"In here, jackass,” said Michael, leading him into the right classroom and heading for his assigned seat. Gavin went up to the teacher with some kind of bullshit exchange student paperwork and was pointed to a desk at the front of the room, a few seats away from Michael's spot in the middle.

Figuring that would probably be the end of all the excitement for a while, Michael had just settled in to take a few halfhearted notes and catch up on some sleep when a folded scrap of paper landed on the corner of his desk. Startled out of his reverie, he picked it up and unfolded it.

_this class is dead boring_

Michael didn’t know many people in his English class, because he usually slept through most of it, so the list of people who’d pass him a note was probably pretty short. Considering the fact that Gavin was currently staring straight ahead and completely failing to look innocent, the list became dramatically shorter. For the first time that period, Michael actually picked up his pen.

_So you guys still pass actual notes to each other on actual paper in jolly old England?_

Taking aim carefully, Michael managed to land the note dead center on Gavin’s desk. A couple other kids stopped texting for a moment to observe this rare, antiquated form of communication in action.

Gavin's reply came a few seconds later, this time on the backside of the paper.

_excuse me steve jobs my phone doesn't work out here. might get a prepaid one soon though so geoff can keep an eye on me. what's your number??_

Michael glanced up again. Gavin was slouched over with his chin in one hand, doodling absentmindedly. Maybe in Europe it wasn’t weird to send almost-strangers handwritten notes requesting their phone numbers.

Shrugging internally, Michael scrawled down his number and tossed the note back. Gavin pocketed it and turned around, hanging off the back of his chair to do some kind of complicated squinting move in Michael’s direction that could have been an attempted wink.

Gavin disappeared after English was over, claiming to know his way to his next class. Michael didn’t see him for the rest of the day, but that night at home he couldn’t help glancing at his phone a few more times than he would normally.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know it's a pain to read wips so i'll try to update more frequently from now on, thanks so much to everyone who commented and left kudos!!
> 
> edit(over a year later): oh god i really hate to be that person but i'm very much out of this fandom and i'm like 97% sure i'll never finish this so i'm just gonna....leave it here.....

There were no texts that night, but the next afternoon when Geoff showed up at their table and announced that everyone was coming off campus with him to go get McDonald’s, Gavin was right there beside him.

"Shotgun," Ray called loudly as they headed to the parking lot, hurrying to catch up with Geoff.

"Aw, I wanted shotgun,” said Gavin petulantly.

“Yeah, well,” Ray said, throwing his backpack into the trunk. “Welcome to America.” 

Geoff only cackled and slid on his customary pair of women’s sunglasses.

“You’re goin’ in the bitch seat.”

"Ugh, no!" Gavin said immediately, and then paused. "Wait, what's the bitch seat?"

“The middle seat, dumbass,” said Michael. It really was profoundly difficult to prevent himself from hitting Gavin a weird amount of the time. 

"Bollocks," said Gavin, climbing in after Jack and followed by Michael. Jack was bigger than either of them, and Gavin ended up kind of squashed against Michael’s side, but he didn’t seem to mind. Michael made sure to do the prerequisite grumbling, but secretly he didn’t mind all that much either. Gavin was pretty scrawny, after all. 

He was just turning to Michael to say something when Geoff pressed a button on the stereo, immediately filling the car with a cacophony of sound. It was a testament to how much time Michael had spent with Geoff over the years that he was able to identify the band as Bad Brains, turned up loud enough to completely circumvent any attempts at conversation. Michael wasn’t entirely sure how it started, but he and Gavin spent the entire rest of the ride alternating between enthusiastically headbanging along and cracking up at how stupid they looked. 

Once they pulled up to the drive-thru, Geoff finally turned down the music enough for the fanfare of ordering to begin. Michael thought of himself as a pretty straightforward dude when it came to McDonald’s, but Jack liked to have a million different specifications that no one understood but him, and Ray always asked for way more food than was probably healthy for any one human to consume, and Geoff sometimes ordered things that weren’t even on the menu just to be an asshole. Adding Gavin to the mix on top of all of that was pretty much a recipe for disaster, but eventually they managed to emerge out the other side.

"I asked them for three cheeseburgers," said Ray, staring glumly down into his bag.

"Shut up and feed me some fries," said Geoff. When it looked like Ray was going to protest, he only shook his head. "Remember what happened last time I tried to do it myself?"

“Oh, yeah.” Ray shuddered and reached into the bag.

A short drive and several near misses later, they arrived at Jack’s house, selected because his parents both worked and he had the best TV. The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze of video games and fast-food induced lethargy, with bonus rounds of mocking Gavin when he proved to be terrible at almost every game they tried him on.

"It's different in England," he protested, mashing the same button over and over and then slamming his controller down against a pillow when that proved to be ineffective.

"Shut up, Gavin," said Michael. He must have repeated that same phrase about a million times in the past few hours, but it was always necessary since Gavin never seemed to stop talking. It was actually kind of funny listening to him run his mouth about every single subject that anyone brought up, and more often than not finding a way to relate it back to genitals, but Michael figured he should probably keep up appearances.

"You shut up," said Gavin, grinning as though he’d just said something wildly audacious. “Ohhhh!” 

“Dude, did you just _ohhhh_ yourself?” Ray shook his head. “Not cool.”

"The fuck did you say, motherfucker?" Michael added, half-rising from the couch to fake a lunge at Gavin, who immediately let out a howl and curled up into the fetal position. There was a beat of silence, and then everyone burst into laughter.

"I have to hit you now," said Michael in between giggles. "You literally just brought this upon yourself."

"Michael," Gavin yelped, rolling completely off the couch in an attempt to get away from him. "Michael, please!"

"Begging won't help you now," Michael said in his most sinister voice, and pinned him to the carpet with hardly any effort at all. 

He meant to go pretty easy on him, because he looked about as tough as a dandelion, but then a flailing elbow clipped the side of his face and before he knew it he was rolling around on the floor with his arm looped around Gavin’s neck, both of them laughing so hard they could barely breathe as the other three cheered them on. 

Gavin made a few exaggerated retching noises, so Michael loosened up a little even though he was probably faking. He wouldn’t put it past him to use vomit as a defense mechanism, or something.

"This is the gayest thing I've seen since I looked in the mirror this morning," Ray said in his most deadpan voice, and Geoff aimed a kick in their general direction.

"You take it back?" Michael asked, tightening his grip again once he figured Gavin’s recovery time was sufficient.

"Yeah, yeah, I take it back," he gasped out, scrabbling weakly at Michael’s arms and rolling away when he was finally let loose. "God, I think I almost pissed myself."

After a couple seconds, Gavin turned back over. He was spread out on the carpet like a starfish, chest rising and falling rapidly, improbably tanned skin exposed where his shirt had gotten rucked up in the back. His eyes were bright and the full force of his grin was aimed at Michael as he attempted to catch his breath.

Michael’s stomach did a weird kind of swooping thing. He scratched the back of his neck, suddenly much more embarrassed than he’d been when they were literally on top of each other in front of a captive audience. Funny how that worked out.

He managed to play it off by leaping back up onto the couch and urging Jack to break Ray’s winning streak, effectively transferring everyone’s attention back to the game, but the incident still stuck at the back of his mind. Everything had been all fun and games while it was actually happening, but one glance at Gavin all winded and panting made Michael feel like his intestines were doing skateboard tricks.

For the rest of their time at Jack’s house he attempted to reign it in, not touching Gavin at all except for a few cursory shoves when he said something especially stupid. And a hip-check when they passed each other on the way to the kitchen. And possibly a few seconds of hiding his face in Gavin’s shoulder in a show of despair after Ray beat them all for the hundredth time. 

Yeah, this might have turned into a problem. 

\--- --- ---

Regardless of Michael’s inner turmoil, it was pretty obvious that Gavin was a good fit for their group. He adjusted quickly to all of their jokes and routines, slipping into their lives so innocuously over the next week or so that Michael found himself searching him out in the cafeteria when he didn’t come to lunch right away.

After that, it seemed natural for the progression to be made from hanging out in a group to hanging out one on one. Michael hardly thought anything of it when Gavin messaged him one afternoon asking to come over for English help and they ended up sprawled on the floor of Michael's bedroom a couple hours later, doing anything they could think of besides their homework.

At the moment, Michael was listening to music while Gavin leafed through one of his middle school yearbooks and giggled inanely at all the stupid graffiti that he and Ray had scrawled over everyone's pictures.

"’Derrick Acosta has rabies?’” Gavin read, raising his eyebrows. “You guys were vicious.” 

"Whaddyou mean _were_?" Michael asked, baring his teeth and dragging himself forward by the elbows to change the song. 

"Right," Gavin laughed, twisting his arm around to display a small bruise on his elbow. "Pretty sure I got this when you knocked me over at Griffon’s last night."

Even though he didn’t seem to mind at all, Michael still felt sort of guilty. He couldn’t think of anyone he spent as much time harassing as Gavin, but there was just something about the kid that made you want to put him in a headlock. At least, that was how he was currently trying to rationalize it to himself.

“I didn’t mean--” Michael started, but he was interrupted by a loud thumping noise. When he looked up, he saw Gavin kneeling guiltily next to what had once been a relatively neat stack of games and what now more resembled the site of an earthquake. 

Gavin's eyes flicked back and forth from Michael to the games and then back again. He was obviously doing his best to suppress it, but the most shit-eating grin in the world was spreading slowly across his face. 

Any and all concerns for his help immediately evaporated from Michael’s mind.

“You’re the worst,” he said, making a lunge that Gavin wasn’t quite able to dodge. “The _worst_!”

"Aww, Michael!" Gavin yelped, flailing wildly until he managed to extricate himself from Michael's grip. He was actually getting a bit better at that, but Michael was quick to grab him again. Gavin just grinned up at him, cheeks flushed red and eyes squeezed shut. 

"We have to stop meeting like this," he said and Michael's heart lurched again. This was getting ridiculous. 

He shoved off of Gavin and headed over to his bed, trying not to let his face turn red.

"Clean those up, asshole," he said, pulling his laptop toward him in an attempt to look busy. 

Gavin went about restacking the games he’d knocked over good-naturedly enough. Michael used the time to get ahold of himself, clicking through websites at random without really looking at them. He didn't know what the fuck was wrong with him, but he did know he had to get his shit together before Gavin figured out something was off, oblivious as he was.

“There,” said Gavin triumphantly as he finished stacking the games back up and then launched himself onto the bed next to Michael, looking over at the computer with interest.

"What're you looking at? Wait, actually I don’t care. Let me show you something."

He reached over Michael’s body to get at the keyboard, going to Youtube and typing in the name of some video Michael had never seen before that seemed to heavily involve various people getting kicked in the nuts. 

On a normal day, he might have appreciated something like that, but right now he was too caught up in Gavin's closeness and his even breathing and how good he looked up close. People weren’t supposed to look that good up close. Michael tried to focus on the video, but it suddenly seemed really fucking stupid. Which it would have to be, if Gavin wanted to watch it. God, he was attractive. Wait.

Worried for his own mental state, Michael pushed Gavin away again, except this time he just flopped languidly back against the pillows and looked up at him, confused.

"What's wrong, you donut? It was just getting to the good bit."

Something complicated gave in Michael’s chest, and he actually felt himself letting go of the last of his rational thoughts. 

"God, you're dumb," he said with feeling, and then rolled back on top of Gavin to press their lips together.

For a few seconds, Gavin held absolutely still. Michael felt panic creeping up on him, but before he could wrench his mouth away and attempt to pass the whole thing off as some kind of old-fashioned American friendship ritual, Gavin's mouth began to move hesitantly with his, and then they were kissing for real. 

It was kind of like the wrestling, except on a bed. And with mouths. Michael made sure not to restrict Gavin’s movement enough that he wouldn't be able to pull away if he wanted to, because he may have just gone completely insane but he wasn’t a raging asshole. Gavin definitely didn’t seem like he was about to leave anytime soon, though. 

"Hey," he gasped when they pulled apart, in a tone Michael had never heard before. He was glad he could hear it now. "What--"

"Shhh," Michael said deliriously, chasing Gavin's mouth with his own. Gavin made a muffled noise and then started stroking up and down his back through his shirt in a really distracting way.

They kept on kissing for a long time after that, until Michael lost count of the breaks for air and accidental nose-bumps and quick wet flashes of tongue. Eventually, however, he realized that a boner was imminent, and he wasn’t quite sure he was ready for whatever that might bring into the situation.

Disentangling himself from Gavin's arms, Michael let out a breath. 

"Uh," he said, and then immediately wished he hadn't, because now he would probably be expected to have some kind of follow-up to that, which he didn’t.

"Yeah," Gavin agreed, which made Michael feel a little better. At least he had no fucking idea what had just happened, either.

They laid together quietly for a few more minutes. Michael wondered if they could avoid addressing the situation by just staying there forever. His mom would probably come in to check on them, eventually.

Before he could settle on something to say, Gavin picked himself up off the bed and grabbed his shoes from where he'd kicked them off in the corner.

"I should go," he said, looking more uncomfortable than Michael had ever seen him, including the time that Jack sat on his head. 

"Right," said Michael, not bothering to get up from his prone position. "See you around, I guess."

"Yeah," said Gavin after a pause, and then he was out the door. 

Michael grabbed one of the pillows from his bed and considered suffocating himself. That seemed a little dramatic, so he settled for yelling into it instead. Then he jerked off, because, as this afternoon had proven to him beyond a doubt, he was only human.


End file.
